In The News

CVSA takes no action on speed limiters, EOBRs

Commercial safety and enforcement officials decided not to take action on some big-ticket items such as speed limiters and electronic on-board recorders during a recent conference. OOIDA representatives were among the 650 safety, enforcement and industry personnel who participated in a workshop of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, April 22-26, in Bellevue, WA.

A presentation from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) on the supposed safety benefits of speed limiters, along with presentations from VDO (Continental Corp.) and Qualcomm on electric on-board recorders failed to materialize into motions or votes by the CVSA panel.

OOIDA Director of Security Operations Doug Morris, a member of the CVSA Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee, said he and OOIDA Chief of Staff Rod Nofziger openly questioned the reported safety benefits of speed limiters during the presentation. They pointed to independent analysis that debunks a recent speed-limiter study prepared for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

“I think we fared well. We clearly stated our positions,” Morris said. “ATRI hoped it would come out of the committee as a favorable presentation, and that the committee would support speed limiters. Fortunately for us, better heads prevailed.”

On the issue of electronic on-board recorders, or EOBRs, the committee held off on taking action in part because of OOIDA’s court action last year against the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on the topic of EOBRs and driver harassment. In that ruling last August, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated the FMCSA’s initial final rule on EOBRs because the agency failed to deal with the harassment issue.

“It was basically a discussion but no motion,” Morris said.

One item that did see action from the CVSA concerned the recent definitional change of “tank vehicle” in a May 2011 final rule about CDLs and learner permits. That rule changed the definition of tank vehicle to include flatbeds and other operations that haul an aggregate of 1,000 gallons or more in containers with a minimum size of 119 gallons. The rule requires those truckers to have a tank endorsement on their CDLs where they didn’t need one before.

CVSA chose to support the May 2011 definition that requires fluid-bin haulers to obtain tanker endorsements. This action is significant because the American Trucking Associations had petitioned to change the language back to the way things used to be. Although the FMCSA accepted the ATA’s petition earlier this year, an FMCSA representative told CVSA that any changes the agency makes in the definition will be minimal and that the 1,000-pound aggregate will remain in the rule.

Morris said the Washington State Patrol made a presentation to try to sway the enforcement community into putting drivers out of service for 34 hours if drivers are found in violation of the 70-hour rule for the work week.

OOIDA representatives argued against the State Patrol’s position, saying that putting a driver out of service for 34 hours would be punitive and not achieve a safety result.

The CVSA committee responded by choosing not to take action on that item.

“The committee as a whole basically said 34 hours would be punitive, so it gave no action to that specific action request,” Morris said.

Morris said that of the 650 people attending the conference, 237 were specifically from the trucking industry including drivers and associations. He said that was the largest turnout he has seen at any CVSA meeting in terms of industry participation and overall attendance.

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